***IFP EMERGING STORYTELLERS SELECTION***

La Marea is the story of Chuck Seeline, a traumatized U.S. Army veteran who shows up one day at San Ignacio Lagoon claiming he is there to see the whales. Known to swim up to small boats and stare, or nuzzle a waiting hand, close encounters with the whales are said to have profound healing powers.

But Chuck isn’t your average tourist– he’s a Spanish and Arabic linguist who was sent on sensitive missions during the Iraq War. Falling asleep each night to the sound of whales breathing out in the lagoon, Chuck revels in his new surroundings. But his vacation is interrupted when a serious stingray wound lands him in the house of the village healer, a powerful old woman named Doña Carmen. Doña Carmen revives him, and Chuck discovers they have something surprising in common: the power to communicate with ghosts.

La Mareais currently being developed to go into production in Baja California in early 2018, while the gray whales are basking in San Ignacio Lagoon.